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Jet of Metal Messiah Radio‘s “The Metal Magdalene With Jet” recently conducted an interview with drummer Kelly David Smith of Arizona metallers FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. You can now listen to the chat in below.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM has set “Ugly Noise” as the title of its new album, which the band is currently writing for a tentative early 2013 release.

When asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new CD, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM guitarist Michael Gilbert told Metal Army America in July, “I worked with [former METALLICA and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist] Jason Newsted on a few songs, and he’s given me some tips about some things and opened my view up towards how I look at my music and how I want the listeners to perceive the points I’m trying to make.”

He added, “[Jason] is really passionate about music, so when I called him and talked to him, I just wanted him to help out with some lyrical stuff and hear some of the music I was writing. He’s a great songwriter, too. I’m not sure if everything that he got to do in METALLICA, if he was restrained a little bit, I’m not sure about all that sort of stuff, but as far as with me, anytime he wants to write with me, he’s got full rein and he’s got absolute say-so in everything that happens. It’s a 50-50 relationship, as it would be with Eric [‘A.K.’ Knutson], our singer, writing music with us, or Kelly [David Smith], our drummer.”

Regarding the musical direction of the new FLOTSAM AND JETSAM material, Gilbert said, “It’s probably the most mature it’s ever been, but if you wanna classify it as close to any other record that we’ve done, it’s probably gonna be close to [1995’s] ‘Drift’. If we were gonna make a record right after ‘Drift’, which was out fifth record, ‘Ugly Noise’ would be the next one — with this lineup, you know.”

Funding for the next FLOTSAM AND JETSAM album is being aided by the PledgeMusic.com project, which encourages fans to contribute funds to the recording of albums and the artists themselves to donate to charity as a part of their fundraising.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM last summer parted ways with drummer Craig Nielsen and was rejoined by Kelly David Smith.

The band’s current lineup is the same as the one that recorded the “Cuatro” (1992), “Drift” (1995) and “High” (1997) albums:

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM‘s latest album, “The Cold”, was released in Europe in February 2011 via Nuclear Blast. The CD’s cover artwork was created by Travis Smith, who has previously worked with OPETH, NEVERMORE, AMORPHIS and KING DIAMOND, among others.